Shake off the salt habit and save your life

Monday

Mar 11, 2013 at 1:50 PMMar 11, 2013 at 1:52 PM

You know to take it easy on the salt. It's why you skip chips, say bye to fries and forsake the bacon, right? For lunch, you have lean turkey slices (1040 mg) on 100 percent whole-wheat bread (440 mg), a dill pickle spear (385 mg) and a glass of skim milk (190 mg). But you still end up with almost 2,100 mg of sodium in one meal! That road to high blood pressure is paved with good intentions and salt! Time to throw it in reverse.

You know to take it easy on the salt. It's why you skip chips, say bye to fries and forsake the bacon, right? For lunch, you have lean turkey slices (1040 mg) on 100 percent whole-wheat bread (440 mg), a dill pickle spear (385 mg) and a glass of skim milk (190 mg). But you still end up with almost 2,100 mg of sodium in one meal! That road to high blood pressure is paved with good intentions and salt! Time to throw it in reverse.

According to the American Heart Association, your daily sodium dose should be 1,500 mg (about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of regular table salt). Most North Americans take in around 3,600 mg. About 75 percent is from restaurant and processed foods (that turkey and bread in your lunch are examples); 12 percent is naturally found in food; and another 11 percent is added while cooking and eating at home. High-salt diets are associated with high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and stomach cancer. And a new study shows that if everyone cut their salt intake by 40 percent (it would still be sky-high at 2,200mg), that alone could save a half a million lives in the next 10 years! But here's how to knock it down to 1,500 mg per day: